At the end of each regular season, the top teams in the AFC qualify for the postseason, including all division champions (three division winners from the 1970–71 to 2001–02 seasons four since the 2002–03 season) and a set number of " wild card" teams that possess the two best win–loss records after the regular season yet fail to win their division (one wild card team from the 1970–71 to 1977–78 seasons two wild cards from 1978–79 to 1989–90, and from 2002–03 to 2019–20 three from 1990–91 to 2001–02, and since 2020–21). The structure of the NFL playoffs has changed several times since 1970. The Denver Broncos and the Pittsburgh Steelers are the only two AFC teams to appear in at least one AFC Championship game in every decade since 1970.įurther information: NFL playoffs The redesigned Lamar Hunt Trophy, awarded since 2010–11 season At least one of Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger played in every championship game between the 2003 and the 2018 seasons, except for the 2009 season. The New England Patriots have won the most AFC Championships at 11, and played in a record eight straight AFC title games (2011–2018). The Pittsburgh Steelers have the most appearances in the AFC Championship Game at 16, with 11 of those games being in Pittsburgh, the most for either conference. The Seattle Seahawks, who have been members in both the AFC and the NFC, hold the distinction of appearing in both conference title games, a loss in the AFC conference title game to the Los Angeles Raiders for Super Bowl XVIII and, in their first appearance in a NFC conference title game, a win over the Carolina Panthers for Super Bowl XL. Since the pre-merger NFL consisted of six more teams than the AFL (16 teams for the NFL and 10 for the AFL), a realignment was required as part of the merger to create two conferences with an equal number of teams: The NFL's Baltimore Colts, the Cleveland Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers joined the ten former AFL teams to form the AFC while the remaining 13 pre-merger NFL clubs formed the NFC.Įvery current AFC team except the Houston Texans has played in an AFC Championship Game at least once. The game is considered the successor to the former AFL Championship, and its game results are listed with that of its predecessor in the annual NFL Record and Fact Book. The first AFC Championship Game was played following the 1970 regular season after the merger between the NFL and the American Football League. Since 1984, each winner of the AFC Championship Game has also received the Lamar Hunt Trophy, named after the founder of both the AFL and the Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar Hunt. The game was established as part of the 1970 merger between the NFL and the American Football League (AFL), with the merged league realigning into two conferences. As always, since the merger, the AFC champion then advanced to face the winner of the NFC Championship Game in the Super Bowl. For the 2022 season, the game was played at Arrowhead Stadium, in Kansas City, Missouri, following the AFC postseason’s first two rounds, when only the Chiefs and the Bengals remained. ![]() ![]() The AFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the American Football Conference (AFC) and one of the two semifinal playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world. Semifinal championship football game in the NFL AFC Championship Game
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